While Lyft stays focused on rides for growth, food and freight could shine in Uber’s earnings
15-inch AUX cord... 17-min ETA. America's #2 ride-hailer just rolled up with earnings. Lyft is known for its transportation focus (think: no food delivery) and cars with fuzzy pink mustaches (see: this Prius). We're checking in on its #s from a quarter of pricey gas, supercharged fares, and disappearing mask mandates:
- Ride volumes reached a pandemic high as the rebound continued, helping revenue jump 44% from the year-ago quarter. Buuut…
- Lyft stock plunged 27% in extended trading on word that active riders dropped by nearly 1M from the previous quarter, to 17.8M. Guidance was also uninspiring.
Uber Black, Lyft Pink… not a K-pop girl band. Lyft's bigger rival reports today. Lyft says it’s "singularly driven" by its mission to improve lives with transportation (cars, bikes, etc.). Meanwhile, Uber’s driving into everything, from food to ecomm deliveries. It’s no longer a ride-hail company.
- Delivery (aka: Eats) made up about half of Uber's gross bookings last quarter, as taco-delivery habits stuck despite restaurant reopenings.
- Ride bookings surged 67%, including niche-er offerings like Uber for Business (employee rides) and Uber Health (clinic rides).
- Uber Freight, which connects semitruck drivers with high-volume loads (think: Heineken kegs), more than tripled revenue, to over $1B.
- Cabs?... In March, NYC agreed to list all its yellow cabs on the Uber app, which gives the company a massive new fleet.
The OG isn't always the growth key… Uber's core biz was ride hail. Now delivery is bringing in nearly half of sales, and freight is its fastest-growing biz. While Lyft is also enjoying the ride rebound, it doesn't have those diversified growth avenues. That could be why Uber's annual revenue is 5X as big as Lyft's. But they have this in common: Uber and Lyft lost hundreds of millions of dollars last year, and both stocks are down ~30% this year.